News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-01-27
THE SUNDAY PULPIT.
REV, DIR. TALMAGE's LAST SUNDAYS
SERMON.
Subject: "These Flying Years"
Xvii &

The Egyptian capital was the focus o.
Ine world S wealth. In ships and barge:
there had been brought from India, CHINA
mon and frankincenSe and ivory and dia.
monds. From the north, marble and iron
rom Syria, silks and pIrpleS. From Greece
the LneSt horses in the world and the most
Drill ant chariots. From all parts of the
earth, every that could please the eve
or charm the ear, or crafty the taste. There
were temples of flaming red sandstone entered
by gateways guarded by pillars bewldering
with hierogbyphicS, and wound around by
blazen serpentS, and adorned with winged
creatures, their eyes and beaks and piniOnS
gAtterlng with precious stones. TFere were
marble pillars blooming into white flower
neds. There were stone pillars, the top burst
lng into the shape of the lotos in full bloom.
Along the avenues lined with sphinx and
fame and obeliSk, Princes rode in gorgeous
palanklne, OF were drawn in vehicles by snow
white horses golden bitted, six abreast dish
ing at full run. There were fountains from
stOne-wreathed vases climbing the ladders
of the sun. a bolt would shove and a door
OF brass would open like a flash of the SUM-
There were the odors of gardens all around
about the palaces-odors climbing the
terraces, or dripping from the ar
bors, or burning their incense in the
Egyptian noon. The floors of mosaic
were written all over with the glorieS of
Pharaoh, written in letters of porphyry and
beryl and fame. There were ornaments
twisted out of the wood of tamarisl en-
bossed with silver breaking into foam. There
were footStoolS made out of single precious
stone. There were chairs spotted with the
sleek hide of leopards There were beds
fashioned out. of crouche1 lion in bronze.
There were sofas footed with the claws of
Wild beasts and armed with the beak of
birds As on some summer day you stand
on the level of the sea beach, and for miles in
this direction and miles in that direction
you see the foam of the breakers driven
ShOrnWnT6 q III / ba of
the worlds pomp and wealth in that
Egyptian capital were flung up in white
breakers of temple and mausoleum and ODE
isk. 1t was to that splendid city, and to the
finest building in that city, the palace of
Pharaoh, that old Jacob, the shepherd far
mer, came to find his son, Joseph, who had
become Prime Minister and was living in one
of the royal apartments. There Pharaoh and
Jacob met. Dignity and rusticity. The
graCefulness of the palace and the plain man
ners of the field. And haraOh, the King, to
put the Old countryman at ease, and noticing
how white his beard was, and how feeble his
limbs, looks Familiarity in the face of the
aged shepherd farmer and says: "How old
art thou?"
Night before last, the gate of eternity
opened to let in amid the throng of departed
centuries the soul of the dying year. Under
the twelfth stroke of the brazen hammer of
the city clock the old patriarch fell dead.
What a fortunate thing it is that we have
tbs milestone on the road of life showing
how far we are getting on toward the end of
tie Journey, and this morning it is appro-
pirate that | look into your faces as Pharaoh
looked into the face of Jacob, and ask you
People who are truthful about everything
else viii lie about their ages So l will put
no one of you under temptation. l want
this morning to apply a higher test
than the ordinary test. There is a
right way and a wrong way of measuring a
measuring a tower, and there is a right way
and there is wrong wayo of measuring our
earthly existence Therefore with this higher
meaning l approach you to-day, and with all
the solemnity involved in the question l ask
you: How old art thou!7 A great many
people, notice, measure their existence by
worldly qualification. When Lord Dundas
was wished a happy New Year, he replied:
Il hope it will be great deal happier than
the old year, for l did not have one happy
moment in all the twelve months But that
has not been the experience of most
of u.s. The most of us found out that though
this world is sn blasted, it is a bright and
beautiful and glorious world. There is no
war between the Gospel and merriment and
festivity and innocent hilarity. l really
think we do not thank God enough for
worldly pleasures. Why do not yon 90 back
further in recounting your mercies. Why
do not you go clear back to the time when
You lay an infant in your mothers arms,
looking up into the heaven of her smile!
Why do not you go back to the time when
you filed the house with uproar of
boisterous merriment-to the time when
with shout you pitched the ball on
the playground, to the time, the cold,
severe, winter night, when, muffled
W to the chin, on the skates you shot out
over the reSoundlng ice of the pond Were
you ever boy Were you ever girl Z
Have you thanked God for early blessings
Joy joy JOY From those times to this,
on how many blessings have breathed up to
us from the flowers, and shOne down to us
from the stars, and shouted to US with the
voice of soaring bird. and tumbling cascade,
and booming sea, and thunders with bayonets
Of fire charging down the mountain side
Joy 10Y JOY But while all this is true
how unwise that man who measures his life
Iy worldly qualification. Life is not
a game of chess, it is not the
foam Of an ale pitcher, it is not the dregs of
a wine cup. 1t is not to be a scene of intoxi.
cation and registering. l will tell you what
life is. Life is the first step on a ladder that
mounts into the skies, or the first step on a
ROAD that piunges into horrible abyss. 1t
IS the keying up of a harp or it is the forging
Of chain. Standing here to-day in the first
Sabbath in the new year, mansions on one
side and dungeons on the other, songs on one
SIDE and groans on the other, Heaven on one
side and he'll on the other, put to you the
question of my text: "How old
art thou@ Toward what destiny art thon
tcndingl How soon will you reach it?
But notice a great many other people
their earthly existence by their scr
rows aud their misfortunes Through the
life of many Of you the pillow has gone
deep, turned up terrific furrow How YOU
have been lied about, and maltreated, and
slapped of impertinence and pounded OF
In the brightest life there are
shadows. In the smoothest road there are
thoIns. Upon the most beautiful brood the
H. L
losing his eyesight heard that Salmatos wa
glad Of it. Pope, applauded for his poetry
all the world over, was so annoyed at his
STOPPING shoulders that in order to avoid
the eyes of the public, he had tunnel dug
through which he walkel day by day from
garden to grotto and from grott0 to garden
Sheridan, while his play was being enacted
in Drury Lane Theatre, heard that hi,
enemy, Cumberland, was growing at it in
the stage box Bishop Coopers lexicon
manuscript, the result of q lifetime's toll, i
by a termagant wife thrown into the fire.
Canno, the Spanish artist, was disgusteC
with TIE crucihx the priest handed him, be
r ause it was not good specimen of sculp-
ture. And sometimes through the taste, and
sometimes through learned menace, and
sometimes, through the persecution of the
world, and sometimes through physical dis
-resses, aye, in ten thousand ways, there come
lnnOyanceS and sorrows and misfortInes
and tragedies. But that is a very I'M
wise man, that is very unwise
who measures life by misfortune and
5.ial, for where there is one stalk of night
shade there are fifty harebells and mari
colds; where there is one cloud thunder
charged there are whole focks of clouds
'traying across the hills of Heaven, all the
glOrios of land and sea asleep in their bosom.
Because you lose your child do YOU forget the
I've or ten or fifteen years when she came
every night for a kiss, all the tones of your
heart responding to the sorrow of her voice
r the touch of her soft hand. Because in the !
,uroClydon of great panic your fortune went
Town, have you forgotten all the years in
which the comforts and the Injuries and the
s2 travagances of life were showered on your
athwayl Oh, that is an unwise man, that
Is an unfair man, that is an ungrateful man.
hat is an unphilosophic man, and more than
III, that is an unchristian man who measures
ls life by loss and trial and rheumatic twinge
and neuralgia thrust-by the things that
went against him rather than by the things
that went for him.
Again, 1 notice a great many people est
mate their life by the amount of money they
nave made. A man tells me: 1.-THE year of
1886, or 1876, or 1886 was all wasted" / say,
'Whym He says: 81 made no money!
How is it. then, that you are here to-day, and
clad and fed and shelteredl You had moth
ng at the hands of God, perhaps you tell me;
Who fed youl Who sheltered yous Ger
rinIy you did not steal these resources.
Then God gave them to you. Be thankful.
have no sympathy with the cant and ny
1ocrisy of people who in pulpit and pew
ak against money as though it had no
-aIue It is refinement, it is education, it is
thousand blessed surroundings, it is hands,
{ is feet, it is sails to great enterprises it is
he table spresd to feed the hunger of your
hildren, it is the fire to keep your family
arm, it is the building of churches, the en-
lowing of colleges, the taking of Bibles across
he sea, under God it is the evangelZatiOn of
latiOuS-nOnaV mt To right useS. The more